Posts Tagged ‘mazda us’

The 2014 Mazda3 is the maker's newest model to use Skyactive technology and the Kodo design language.

Mazda sales are surging, but short supplies of key vehicles are holding back the Japanese automaker’s growth in the U.S. market, officials claim.

The maker’s strong gains counter concerns that Mazda might face serious problems after the break-up of the little Japanese maker’s long-running alliance with Ford Motor Co. But several recent products have clicked well with U.S. consumers, and Mazda posted its best August U.S. sales in 10 years by selling 28,106 vehicles last month.

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Through August, sales were up 6.8%, barely keeping pace with overall growth in the U.S. auto market, however, and a dip from the 26.4% jump in Mazda’s volume in 2012. That slip is linked to challenges delivering enough product to the U.S., according Jeremy Barnes, Mazda North American Operations director of marketing and communications.

Mazda is expected to abandon the U.S. plant it now operates with Ford and may also cancel production of the midsize Mazda6.

Mazda appears ready to end a nearly quarter century-old joint venture with Ford Motor Co. and stop producing cars in the United States.

The apparent decision reflects the fact that Ford has sold off all but a small portion of its holdings in the Japanese maker – as well as the reality that the Mazda6 model produced in the Flat Rock, Michigan plant has not been doing well in the American market.

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Officially known as AutoAlliance International, the plant was opened in 1987 and marked the high-water point in the long-running relationship between Mazda and Ford. The U.S. maker had acquired a controlling stake in its Asian ally, which was then struggling to overcome a series of setbacks. Ford even got to name the CEO at Mazda and appointed a number of Western managers – a rarity at the time.